


Champagne SuperNova

by Orlha



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, BAMF Darcy Lewis, BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Beta Bucky Barnes, Bucky needs better plans, Canon compliant when it fits, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Hitchhiking, Kidnap Skye game, Kidnapping, M/M, Memory Loss, Multi, Omega Verse, Past Brainwashing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Superpowers, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-05-31 11:40:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6468799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye thinks her life is going great for the first time in her memory. On top of being an honorary Avenger, Skye is a consultant for Shield. She’s wanted for her skills by both Shield and Avengers, and is loved by Steve but all that changes when Hydra emerges from within Shield. Her life goes into a downward spiral and just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, she is dragged out of the Kree temple kicking and screaming by her alpha’s ex-bondmate, who happens to be the Winter Soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Getaway that is a kidnapping

 

It is a terrible idea, even before Skye consciously started making plans for it. Her getaway from Hydra had been a total classifiable FUBAR, all letters caps because there was no worse FUBAR that her getaway had been. She had already filed it as ‘ _Ourense’_ , that place in the middle of somewhere. Not that it was a getaway. It really is less of a getaway and more of a straight out kidnapping. The soldier… asset… poor dude that had been captured by Hydra has been sitting stoically beside her through the entire ride since they piled into the Ford and peeled out of the burning building. She doesn’t know where the dude… Bucky is driving them to, except he has a death-grip on her wrist and she is losing feeling to her fingers.

“Dude. Seriously…” Skye wiggles the fingers on her left hand, trying to pry her wrist from his grip. The only thing she succeeds is getting his grip to tighten, a thing that she didn’t know was possible. “Winter Soldier… Soldier… Asset… man with metal arm-” she starts, noticing his body stiffening as she runs through the several names, “Bucky… my fingers are numb! Either let go of my arm or so help me, I will…”

The car shakes. Not the kind of shaking that she’d associate with a faulty car but the kind of shaking that she’d associate with earthquakes and ~~man with the metal arm~~ Bucky immediately pulls the car over and pulls her under him in an attempt to protect her. The shaking stops the moment he does and she waves her left hand frantically, trying to get feeling back into it. It’s kind of nice that he had attempted to protect her, but she doesn’t even know why he had grabbed her after the whole temple had collapsed or why he had followed her into the altar when she had run to stopped Raina. God knows what happened to Raina. Something has changed inside her, but Skye isn’t ready to consider it yet. Right now she has bigger things to worry about. Mainly ~~the man with the metal arm~~ Bucky kidnapping her and driving them to who knows where.

“Where are you kidnapping me to?” she asks when she starts feeling the prickly pin feeling in her hand.

“Not kidnapping,” he glances askance at her. He’s beta and judging by his almost dominant actions, Skye thinks he might be a high beta. That’s never a good thing.

“You kinda hauled me on your shoulder even though I was screaming in your ear to put me down. I’m pretty sure that is considered kidnapping,” she sniffs and levels him a look.

He gives her _that_ look; _that_ look that she swears Steve has it patented, likes she’s kicked a puppy and Skye crushes that ‘sorry’ that almost bubbles out of her mouth. “Don’t you give me that look. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“You smell like him,” he says, like it’s supposed to explain everything but it really doesn’t. Skye waits for a further explanation and he offers none.

“I feel like I should be offended by those words. I do not smell… that bad…” She changes her words as she sniffs herself. Yes, a week old stink does not smell good. Oh, what she would do for a shower and a change of clean clothes. Fucking Ward most certainly hadn’t considered her need for a shower as something essential. And the road trip that her kidnapper and her are on hasn’t exactly given her time to clean up. Skye hopes that that was going to the last of him she’d see but honestly, Ward is like a bad penny that keeps turning up and she isn’t going to hold her breath for that.

“You smell like him,” he repeats it. “Him,” he adds. He has that look on his face that Skye recognises immediately. Like when she searches for a word that’s at the tip of her tongue but for some reason can’t seem to find it.

“Who?” Skye doubts that he would have been able to pick up Steve’s scent. It has been over six months since Steve last marked her. Pretending to be dead is harder than she expected it to be, especially now that Steve has asked Stark to track her down. Stark’s a genius engineer, but she’s a far better programmer. Not that she doesn’t trust the Avengers, it’s just that she hasn’t been able to do a thorough check on the the support crew for the Avengers. The secret that Shield is still alive and running would be a terrible secret to leak.

“Steve,” he finally says, and Skye’s ready to just tap out at the next sign of overused tropes. So on top of getting kidnapped by an obsessive, possessive alpha to a super secret evil villain base, she’s finally gotten to meet her ‘father’ and turns out that he’s as crazy as she had suspected. All she needs is a tire to blow, for them to be stranded in the middle of nowhere and a crazy amount of hitchhiking.

No wait. He just said he smelled Steve on her; as in, smelled his scent on her. “You smell Steve?” She asks. Ward hadn’t, in spite of his heavy sniffing that was definitely considered sexual harassment. Alphas shouldn’t be sniffing omegas without their permission. Ward thought that Steve had abandoned her because his scent wasn’t on her and given his grand delusions on her having some weird regret for bonding to Captain America and only realising that she was in love with him all along, Skye doesn’t even bother wasting her saliva on correcting him. She’s tried telling him otherwise before but that’s worked out _so_ well so far.

“Steve. I think he used to be my alpha.”

Well, fuck.

Ex-bondmate trope.

Her day’s just getting better and better. Skye swallows her sigh but allows herself to bang her head against the door. “So what do you wanna do?” she asks him. If he wants to duel her for the bondmate right, she’s just going to throw in the towel. She doesn’t want to give up Steve as her alpha but there’s absolutely no fucking way she’s going to defeat a Soviet assassin that has over a hundred kill count.

He gives her a baffled look. “What do you mean?”

The sigh escapes her lips even before she can stuff it down.  “So you wanna duke it out for Steve or you know… _there can only be one..._ ” she motions with her hands and scrubs her face tiredly.

He gives her an even more baffled look. “I’m not… _duking_ … anything out with you. You are Steve’s omega… my omega…” He says the word ‘my omega’ like it means the whole world, and Skye has no fucking idea how to respond to that. It’s like she’s suddenly been transported into some version of the Bourne movies. The fact that she’s travelling beside an amnesiac assassin that barely speaks who probably has piles of forged identities somewhere is entirely not lost on her.

“So what do you want me to call you?” she asks. She can’t exactly call the Soviet assassin, Soldier or Asset and Bucky makes her think this twenty year old frat boy that parties every night and is probably not going to make it through college.

“James. I think that was my name.”

“Okay. James. Where on earth are you kidnapping me to?” No matter what he says, he’s still bringing her somewhere against her will and well, he might be Steve’s beta but he isn’t hers. His sad blue eyes are sort of breaking her but she’s going to hold on as long as she can.

“I’m _driving_ us away.”

“Away from the burning Hydra base and half-demolished temple. Yes, I suppose that’s a good start two days ago. But are you _kidnapping_ me to somewhere else?” He scratches the back of neck in an almost assassinish-sheepish manner and Skye snickers. “The great James doesn’t have a plan?”

“Far away is a good plan.”

“Do you even know where we are?” Because honestly, Skye has absolutely _no_ idea where she is. Ward didn’t exactly let her keep her phone. She mourns for her really sweet Starkphone that is probably sitting at the bottom of the ocean now or in the pocket of some evil villain minion. The latter is probably a better alternative. At least she can send a code to activate a distress signal and she’s fairly certain she would be able to hack into Stark’s suit and watch someone - probably Steve - beat the shit out of him. Hopefully that evil villain minion’s name starts with a W and ends with a D.

“Celada.”

Well that’s a start. That’s somewhere near San Juan still, right? She half climbs out of her seat and paws through the bags that James somehow managed to snag on their way out even with her kicking and screaming. It’s a high tech Hydra base, the getaway bag once belonged to a Hydra asset. It is the year 2016 and Skye expects a smartphone in getaway bag _at least._ She finds a phone alright, just not a smartphone. It’s not _even_ a recent model.

“A fucking Hydra getaway bag and they put Nokia 3310 in their getaway bags? It’s like they expect us to throw this into buildings to destroy them. They have memes on this shit on tumblr and facebook. You know… that even after the explosion and apocalypse, this phone is going to survive it all.” The idea of James even surfing tumblr and facebook while waiting for his target to be in sight, tickles her. “Tumblr’s this…” she makes scrolly motions with her thumb and gives up.

“I can’t even hack the net with this… this day is sooo bad that there’s no possible way of it getting worse...”

Then the tire blows and they are stranded in the middle of nowhere. And it starts to pour.


	2. The way everything goes from bad to worse and impossibly horrible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their getaway car breaks down in the middle of the wilderness in the middle of the night, it's pouring, Skye's getting sick. Skye really jinxed herself this time, didn't she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there my pretties! For those who waited impatiently for this or sent me asks on this, here we go! Finally!! Unfortunately given my usual writing style, this has some issues discussed very lightly. There’s a bump in the rating too, but come on. It’s an ABO fic, you must have expected it somehow. No explicit scenes, not yet planned at least. I’ll mention if there is.
> 
>  
> 
> **Attempted rape on this chapter, nothing explicit though.**

“I had to jinx us,” Skye muttered miserably as she watched him attempt to fix the tire.“So?” She asked, pulling the too big parka around her. He had taken it off and given her the moment the rain started pouring.   ~~The Soviet Assassin~~ … ~~Bucky~~ … James stood and tugged her parka’s hood further down her head like it was going to stop the rain from attempting to drown her. It was still warm with James’ body heat and even through the miserable rain, she could feel the heat waft from him like he’s some kind of... organic, movable heater.

“Tire blew.”

“No shit, Sherlock. I’m assuming we don’t have a spare tire.” She tried but failed to suppress the tremble that shot through her. James frowned at her and riffled through the getaway bags, not that that was going to be much use. Skye had tried that earlier, but apparently warm clothing didn’t rank as high up as ammunition and bulletproof vests, she did question the person’s common sense that had pre-packed the getaway bags for Hydra.

“We need to get out of the rain,” he told her and took her hand with his flesh hand, swinging the two bags across his other shoulder with his left hand. Skye huddled closer to him, hand clenching around his warm hand.

“How are you so warm even without a jacket?” He didn’t respond, only sweeping his head back and forth for shelter or even a car. Even with the parka and the warmth of James’ hand, her teeth were chattering so hard that Skye thought she might break them. James pulled her flush to his side, his eyes raking over her with a frown as he took in her chattering teeth. Skye could smell his worry wafting off her, it was so palpable that it made Skye wonder why he was so worried. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he held her close to his ridiculously hot body and though it was slightly awkward, they continued walking in that manner with his beta scent comforting her.

Skye wasn’t very sure how long they had been walking down the highway with car after car zooming past them, not even bothering to stop or slow for them. She was exhausted and cold, was almost too cold to realise that James had stopped, shaking her, trying to snap her out of her zoning. “Aren’t you cold?” she forced the words through her chattering teeth and he shook his head. “There’s no shame in being cold, you know?”

“Not cold.”

Skye heaved a large sigh. “I don’t believe I can be this cold and you’re not even cold? Fuck, I swear you’re going to turn blue before you admit it.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Her mind was fuzzy. She was so cold that she swore that the heat James’ body was radiating was probably giving her a low-grade burn. Skye opened her mouth to argue but paused, tired of even talking, and just said to him dully, “So what choices we have?” Skye pulled her right hand out of her pocket. She had to literally prise her fingers from the phone she had been clutching. “I could call Steve,” she mumbled, staring blankly at the phone, her mind trying to work out the possibilities of her hacking through to Steve without alerting anyone, and all that with a Nokia 3310 but the fog of exhaustion was preventing her from even working past step 2. When was the last time she felt so tired?

James brushed a wet tendril from face, a look of resignation overcoming his face. “No. No Steve,” he pursed his lips, releasing his grip on her waist. She stumbled, suddenly realising that James had been practically carrying her for the last god knows how long they had been walking. Skye swayed for a moment. A rise of bile crawled up her throat. “Stay here,” he nodded at her as he pulled a pistol from his holster.

“James? What are you doing?” She stared at him, transfixed in horror then bewilderment as she watched him _run_ after the truck _and catch_ the truck, halting it some several feet away. “Fuck me.”

“Skye!” he swung the door open, motioning at her to come. Heaving the bags off the gravel, she hobbled down the road, skittering to a stop at the truck.

“Fucking hell, James! Did you just run as fast as a fucking truck!? Why didn’t you do that earlier if you could?”

“Forgot.”

“You forgot you can run as fast as a truck…” she deadpanned.

“Forgot I could run faster than a truck.” He shrugged and grinned wryly at her.

“I could strangle you right now!” she muttered, letting James help her up the truck and peel the wet parka from her body.

Using his body to block her from the truck driver’s view, he handed her the truck driver’s oversized shirt and towel and stared out of the windshield stoically while she changed. “James, are you going to change?”

“Not enough spares, girlie,” the truck driver snarked, his further replies tapered off when James pressed the gun muzzle into his thigh.

“James!” She tugged his pistol from the driver, apologising to the driver.

“He was rude.”

“As much as anyone would be if you were chased down by a supersoldier while driving a truck and held at gunpoint.”

“Thank you, m’ija.”

“And my name’s Skye, not m’ija.

He smirked at her. “Anything you say, m’ija.”

“Can I shoot him now?” Bucky asked mildly.

“No. We are not shooting anyone!”

James grumbled and placed the pistol on his thigh, fingers turning the heat up, glaring at the driver as though daring him to say something.

The driver merely smiled and leant against the window. “So what’s a beta and an omega doing walking in the rain at this time of the night?”

“Things that smart men don’t ask questions about,” Skye gave him a sideways glance. The guy rolled his eyes.

“Just passin’ time. I vale madres!”

She leaned back against the seat as the truck cab fell silent, relaxing for the first time in what felt like days. Soon she was feeling warm, too.

The driver glanced at her several times and smirked at her through the rearview mirror. “Forgot your suppressies, m’ija?”

She felt James bristle beside her, his hand clenching tighter around the pistol.

“Wey, calm yourself down, beta. I ain’t gonna force no Omega against her own will. I want no problema, amigos! Not sure why you two are in the middle of el desierto a las dos de la noche - sure there’s a pretty good reason. No bronca,” he added hastily when James squared him a look. “But you smell like you coming on heat, fast, m’ija. You’re her beta, aren’t you guey? You need to take better care of her, or la vas a perder.”

Her heat.

She hadn’t realised that with Ward trying to forcefully bond her, her terragenesis and the lack of her alpha around, it had triggered a stress heat. Oh god, a heat on the run. So the cold, it hadn’t been that cold, it had been her heat making her more sensitive to the cold.

James pressed closer to her, away from the driver that she had not realised until now was not only an alpha but an unbonded alpha.

“Look,” the driver said, his eyes flickering to her. Skye could see his pupils dilating, his nostril flaring up as he took deep breaths. “Wey, I’m gonna drive lo mas rapido possible to the nearest motel, okay? Guey, you keep the gun on me. I no want to be bonded to no omega.”

He shook his head and wound the windows as far as it could. “I said to my madre, wey, I don’t want no Omega. I like being lone alpha. She think I am loco,” he chuckled, continuing rambling on in a manner that Skye quickly realised he was using to try to distract himself.

She turned her head away, winding the window as well, watching the trees zoom pass them. The driver, whose name she didn’t get, was pushing the truck to its limits. At the back, she could hear the sound of the cargo creaking with every turn and bump along the poorly maintained road. His knuckles gripped the wheel tightly, Skye could hear him reiterating _mierda, mierda, mierda_ under his breath, eyes flickering to hers then to the gun that was pressed against his thigh. The press of James’ body was more comforting that she thought it would be.

It had been a long while since she had a heat without an alpha - _without Steve,_ long enough that she was quite intimidated by the idea of being without Steve that Skye was almost ready to fight for the phone that was in James’ pocket to call Steve.

_Just hormones._

Skye bit her lip, sticking her head out of the window as far as she safely could. Now that her body was equalizing on the heat, she was feeling more hot than cold, The rain cooled her heating body but that was only going to be temporary. She hadn’t even had a heat on the run for at least seven years. She was going to need supplies and a safe house. Taking a slow breath, she let James’ calming beta scent waft over her, telling her that he was there. He didn’t react when she slipped her hand into his and leant her head against his shoulder, unwillingly nodding off into an exhausted sleep.

\----

They were pulling into a gas station when James roused her, his blue eyes skimming over her with an expression that was more clinical than lustful. “I’m okay,” she told him without realising that she had understood his look. “I need to use the bathroom though.”

The fitful sleep had helped ease some of her heat but there was no telling how long it would last. They would need supplies and Steve. Her eyes fell onto the pocket where she had seen James drop the phone in. She could steal the phone, Tony could track her. A heat without her Alpha would quite literally kill her, unless they had supplies. Skye shook her head inwardly, wrapping her arms around James as he helped her off the truck, slipping her hand into his pocket to fish the phone out. Somehow she had managed to steal the phone from the soviet assassin! How she had managed it, Skye wasn’t sure. Perhaps it might have been him occupied with smell of her growing heat. Regardless, she had gotten it.

She took a step, her right knee buckling, nearly sending her to the ground had it not been for James’ quick catch. Her legs felt like semi-solid jelly which meant that her heat was no doubt was getting worse.

The driver was refueling, pointedly looking away. The gas station was mercifully vacant of anyone apart from the three of them and the cashier. Skye felt a coil of heat wind in her abdomen as she accidentally inhaled James’ scent, calm, strong and capable of protecting her, a bit like mint or lime. She _could_ settle with James’ knot if it came down to it.

No.

That’s her hormones talking, not her brain. Biting on her lip, Skye let the pain clear her mind, turning to James and folded her arms. “It’s a deserted gas station with only the cashier and the three of us. I’m sure I’ll be fine. Don’t lurk outside the bathroom, you look stalkerish.”

He grunted, opening the bathroom door and checking each cubicle before looking to her. “Yes, I’ll scream when I need help okay? I’ll need… supplies,” she said. Properly chastised, he skulked into the gas mart to look for some supplies.

Skye shut her eyes and sank against the bathroom door before pulling out the phone she had stolen from James. Damnit, no signal, she should have known or James would have known this, that’s why he _let_ her steal it. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she pulled herself up with the help of the sink, slapping the phone onto the side and washing her grimy face with the cold tap water. She could type a message. It’d probably go into the outbox and keep re-sending until the signal came back. Did the old phones have the same function? Maybe not, but there was no harm in trying.

_To Steve,_

_Im w/ your ex-bmate n in heat, need you. We’re in Celedas, Puetro somewhere._

_\- S_

A hand clapped over her mouth as she pressed the send. An astringent  alpha scent flooded her nose as the alpha held her close to him. Skye never had issues with alphas trying to use their alpha voice on her, Ward had tried and failed many times; he didn’t realise that she was a high omega which meant only high alphas could make her obey them. After all high omegas, along with high alphas, were rare.

An omega with alpha qualities, no one wanted such an omega. Having a mate like her or even to have her alongside other children made pack bonds difficult. Skye had always cursed herself for being born a high omega, thinking it had been the reason why she kept being sent back to the orphanage and after Ward, she had been glad that she was one when he couldn’t make her submit

“Shssssh,” the driver cooed, tinging his voice with just the slightest bit of alpha voice.

The smell of his scent changed from excitement to something lustful. An unbonded alpha and an unbonded omega. Skye jerked against his hold, trying to flip him but her legs gave way instead, sinking against him.

“Come on little m’ija. I know you need it too.”

Of all the times to have her body give out on her, it had to be now. Panic raced through her and all of sudden, the buzzing that had been beneath her skin seemed to surge into her ears. The ground was shaking, cracks splintering the walls, breaking apart from the vicious vibrations.

“Skye!” she heard James call for her then the alpha was ripped off her with a throaty growl. The cacophony of the earth breaking around them drowned everything. Her stomach lurched and gurgled as her view swam.

She felt someone pull her against him, the cool, minty lime scent enveloping her. He cupped her face, his lips pressed so tightly together that they looked like a thin line across his pale face. Pushing away from him, she threw herself from him, retching onto the ground. James reached for her, plucking her hair from her face, rubbing her back until nothing but saliva came out.

“I’m okay,” Skye told him, wiping her mouth with the tissue that he handed her. God knew where he got it from.

The gas station was destroyed. The cashier crouched behind one of the fallen walls, staring at them wide-eyed with a phone to his ear.

“We have to go,” James said. His hand gripping tightly onto her elbow and steering her towards the still-standing truck.

“Wait, what about the driver?” Skye turned to see the driver lying on the ground unconscious with a bloody face. “Oh god. What did you do to him!?”

“He attacked you.”

“It was his hormones! He tried to get us safely away! He didn’t want it anymore than I did!”

“He attacked you,” James stubbornly repeated.

“James.”

He clenched his jaws and squared his shoulders. “No.”

“It’s his truck for crying out loud! Do you know how to drive his truck?”

“Hydra trained me in driving more than one thousand different vehicles. Not hard.”

“James. He helped us! We _don’t_ leave good people behind. We _can’t._ We’re not like them.”

Skye placed a hand on his bicep and he sighed loudly. “Just like Stevie,” he gritted his teeth then stopped, staring at her in complete and utter surprise. “I remembered,” he said lowly then looked back at the driver. With great reluctance, he hefted the unconscious driver into the back of the truck, stormed into the ruined mart and returned with duct tape - lots of it.

“We’re not…” she palmed her eyes and decided to let it go. “Fine. Yea.. duct tape him to the side of the truck. That’s just _fucking_ splendid.”

James added roll after roll of duct tape until the unconscious driver was solely held up against the side of the truck by duct tape.

“Are you happy now? Can we go?”

He vaulted into the driver’s seat. Stared at it for a few moment, analyzing it, and threw the gear into two. James beamed at her with a smile that she didn’t know he was capable of, “See, toldya I c’ld have done it.”

Brooklyn accent, well she’d be damned.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want faster updates? >_> Chase after them by sending me an ask on my [tumblr](http://luna-orlha.tumblr.com/)... I get distracted easily...


	3. That which James is a vindictive, protective beta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James searches for a safe house to keep Skye safe as well deal with the alpha duct taped to the side of the truck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll be seeing Skye and Steve in the next chapter! Till then! Enjoy!

The sun was starting to creep across the forest, filtering through the dark leaves, spilling across the darkened highway, seeping shades of orange and yellow into the brightening blue sky. James drove on, eyes flickering left and right, hoping to find a safe place to hole Skye up. When he had taken Skye from Hydra, he had only been worried on what Whitehall had intended to do with her. Whitehall was dead, he made sure of that and so were his lackeys, but Doctors that took both of them weren’t. The people that fought Hydra at the temple were dubious, and their motives were unknown just as their allegiance. Skye had yelled at him to put her down, but he wasn’t going to leave her with questionable people.

She might be upset with him for awhile, upset and alive was better than cold and dead. Least he could save his energy for other things like taking care of her. Bucky didn’t need instruments to know that something changed in her in the Kree Temple. To his super soldier senses, her heartbeat was registering higher than an average human’s even with her onset heat.

James nearly missed the small road trail on the left. Grinding the truck to a halt, he bent across the wheel, trying to pick out where the road led to. Whatever was inside was too far in for even his eyes to catch. His trained instincts guessed that it was a small house judging by the depth of the trail, not recently used so probably empty. Making a quick decision, he slung their getaway duffel back across one shoulder and got off the truck. He opened the other door and slowly slid Skye into his arms, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder so that it wouldn’t roll. Unable to resist, James took a deep breath of her scent as he strode down the trail. She smelt so sweet, like spring rain and summer sun. It reminded him of things just at the edge of his mind. Not clearly enough for him to pull up the memory yet. He held tighter onto her, wanting to protect her from the world.

James wanted to resent her for her untimely heat, yet at the same time found himself unable to fault her for something that was clearly out of his control. He had almost been too late, earlier at the bathrooms. Just a moment later and the alpha might have attempted to rut her. He felt himself grow angry at that thought. Had it not been for his omega being there, he might have killed the alpha.

The house was dusty. No one had come by for several months which was good. James set Skye on the porch, letting his hand linger a moment longer before drawing away to check the perimeter. Woods grew thickly around the house; there were old tire tracks to the side of the house. A small but rapid stream passed beneath the wooden deck. The ground crunched beneath his feet as he did a quick circuit through the woods. Above, he sensed the flight of a bird weaving through the trees.

No sign of man even in the forest. He retreated back to the house, doing a thorough check of the rooms. The interior of the house was richly laid with wood carved and the stairs that led up to the master bedroom were thick planks of timber. Setting a hand on the wooden railings as he passed, the dark scent of the wood brought back memories that James didn’t know he had, fragments of him carving wood - a chair. A girl was sitting in that chair that he carved. His footsteps faltered.

He remembered her name - _Rebecca._ Though how she was related to him, he still could not recall. He blinked, deciding to wait until a better time to think about it. He had an omega to take care of now.

Skye was exactly where he left her, leaning against the porch railing. The flush on her cheek wasn’t good. She was so hot when he slung her carefully into his arms. The scent of her building heat hit him hard. She smelt so good, even to a beta.

“Skye,” he called her. James hoped that she was not delirious - _yet_. He wasn’t ready to meet Steve yet. The blond alpha with blue eyes that conjured memories James wasn’t prepared to relearn. He wasn’t _Bucky_ yet and not quite James either. At the back of his head, the Asset snickered at his hesitation.  There, in his arms, was a pliant little omega all ready for him to mate and yet he wasn’t going to take it.

James wasn’t going to let the Asset goad him into doing things that he was going to regret later. He paused outside the second door, fumbling slightly with the doorknob before swinging it open. The second room was the most defensible room in the house with the bathroom across the hallway. His omega would need it. She let a tiny plaintive whimper when he placed her on the dusty floor. He cradled her head to the crook of his neck, releasing calm beta scent to ease her discomfort before turning back to his self-imposed task - readying the room for his omega’s heat.

The mattress was wrapped in plastic covers which he quickly removed and laid clean sheets that he found from a cabinet. Settling Skye onto the bed, he tucked the blanket around her and placed the supplies out onto the bedside drawer. The blanket wasn’t going to be much of use in the later days of her heat, but it’d help while she was going into it.

James found himself wanting to sigh at the turmoil in him, an act that he found himself unfamiliar to. He had managed to get food bars and several simple toys, but not a knotting toy. At the edge of his memory, James remembered that omegas needed a knot to survive their heats.

Was his discomfort at seeing his alpha worth risking his omega? James knew the answer was a resounding no yet he as he fiddled with the phone, noticing the message Skye had sent out, James found he could not bring himself to call Steve. He clenched his jaw, picking up his duffel bag and secured the house. The truck still had to be disposed of, as well the alpha that had attacked Skye.

No more than an hour.

Casting a furtive glance at the house, James made his way back to the truck where the alpha was now awake and very afraid.

“Mierda. Please-” the driver cried as James approached him. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I should kill you,” James said and levelled him a sharp look.

“Please. I beg of you-” By now the driver had tears and snot running down his face. Yes, he should be afraid. James remembered the smell of fear filling the air when he ran across the gas station. He wouldn’t kill the alpha, what Skye said to him about them being not Hydra reverberated deep into him. He’s killed far too many to count and he would start making amends now, but that didn’t include scaring the driver.  “I didn’t want it either. I didn’t want an omega. I swear, I tried.”

The pungent stench of urine assaulted his nose, enough for James to almost back away from the driver though the Asset reminded him that this was nothing compared to the times he had _assisted_ in interrogations.

He wasn’t the Asset anymore. Instead of shooting the driver the way the Asset demanded him to, James ripped the duct tape off. “Go. Drive away and tell no one,” he told the driver who only nodded frantically and dropped the keys into a pool of the alpha’s urine with a ghost of a smirk.

Oh yes, James could be vindictive.


End file.
